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Obasanjo drops new minister

President Olusegun Obasanjo will on Wednesday (today) in Abuja inaugurate the newly appointed ministers.

President Olusegun Obasanjo will on Wednesday (today) in Abuja inaugurate the newly appointed ministers.

The ceremony, to be held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, will be without one of the 12 ministers, Dr. Kingsley Kolapo Akinroye.

A highly placed source in The Presidency told our correspondent that Obasanjo dropped Akinroye for some issues relating to his curriculum vitae.

His case, according to the source, followed a petition by some indigenes of Osun State challenging his claim of having worked in a London hospital.

Security reports may have corroborated the petition.

The source said, “The president is not happy about what happened. But, as a man who believes in transparency and fairness, he had to drop the candidate. There is nothing personal about it and this has nothing to do with a petition allegedly written by faceless individuals from the state. It’s a big loss really as the man was penciled down for the Ministry of Health as a Minister.

“I can tell you authoritatively that Akinroye was recommended to the president as someone who could help the government in turning around the health sector. So, when security reports got to the President’s desk indicting him over some inadequacies in the claims he made in his curriculum vitae, the President made his own findings and took the right decision at the end of the day.’’

Asked if the President’s decision to drop Akinroye after he had scaled the screening by the Senate was not procedurally wrong, the source said, “the President has the power to hire and fire, dropping a minister should not generate any controversy.”

There were also indications on Tuesday that Akinroye was not cleared by security agencies before his confirmation by the Senate.

Highly placed sources at the Senate told our correspondent that at the time the leadership of the upper arm of the National Assembly sent the list of nominees to the Police and the State Security Service for clearance, Akinroye’s name was not on the list.

In a telephone interview, the Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Dalhatu Tafida, confirmed our findings and gave more details.

He said the confirmation of Akinroye by the Senate was not final but conditional upon the outcome of the security screening, which was sent directly to the President since the Senate had adjourned.

Tafida observed that if Akinroye’s name were included in the list submitted by the Senate to the security agencies, perhaps he would have been disqualified before or after the screening, depending on the state of the report.

Swearing in of the 11 other ministers will commence by 10am on Wednesday.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, said three guests would accompany each of the ministers.